As a business owner, you’re likely always on the lookout for ways to streamline operations and maximize efficiency. One area that can greatly benefit from a managed approach is IT. Not only can IT management provide peace of mind and alleviate technical headaches, but it can also bring significant business advantages. Here’s a quick and dirty guide on the ins and outs of managed IT that we expect will uncover the glittering business benefits that come with it.
So, whether you’re a small startup or a large corporation, read on to discover how managed IT can help take your business to the next level.
So, What’s Managed IT?
Managed IT is paying someone else to manage your IT for you by outsourcing some or all of your IT infrastructure and management to a third party. It’s kind of like getting someone to keep your house nice because you don’t have the time to do it properly, and you’re no good at it anyway. Except if your housekeeper doesn’t dust under the bed, you won’t go to jail or lose business. (Ok, we’ve stretched that analogy as far as it can go.)
Companies that manage your IT are often called Managed Service Providers (MSPs).
Wait, My Business Is Perfectly Fine Without An MSP
Calm yourself, sweetie. Maybe your business has been trotting along nicely without the help of an MSP, thank you very much. Your lovely employees work from home and do cool stuff on the cloud. Yep, maybe you’ve had a few glitches, but you’re not in jail yet, and everything seems pretty straightforward. But if you can say “dang it, yes” to at least three of the following, your business might benefit from some TLC from an MSP:
- Data breach monitoring. You don’t have the time or expertise to monitor your IT systems carefully for potential data breaches.
- No dedicated IT specialist. You don’t have a dedicated IT specialist on your team, and hiring one isn’t in your business strategy or budget.
- Overworked IT specialist. You do have an IT specialist, but there’s more work for them than they can handle.
- Technical issues. You keep having tech problems or system failures. Uh-oh – something’s not right.
- Rapid business expansion. Your business is expanding, and you’re onboarding a tonne of new employees.
- Remote/hybrid working model. You have a remote or hybrid working business model or use on-the-road or seasonal teams.
- IT strategy implementation. You want to take advantage of all the great IT stuff out there for your business but don’t know where to start.
- IT infrastructure. You don’t really have a handle on your IT infrastructure, so you could be wasting money paying for software licenses that your people hardly use or buying hardware you don’t need.
- Compliance demonstration. You’re starting to work with enterprise-level corporations, and you need to demonstrate that you’re compliant.
- Data security compliance for sensitive info. You’re starting to work with protected health information or customer data where demonstrable data security compliance is mandatory.
- Budget. Your IT budget is unpredictable.
Hmm, if managed IT services could take care of this much, could this mean that the business benefits of managed IT are a tiny bit massive? Oh yes. Yes, it could.
I’m Not Sold Yet. What Are The Actual Business Benefits of Managed IT?
Let’s translate the plague of bullets above into the business benefits of managed IT and yet more bullets:
- Reduced risk of a data breach. With your fleet secured, correctly configured, and monitored in real-time and your backups managed, you’ll expose your business to much less risk of data (and reputation loss).
- Saving money on infrastructure. Optimizing your IT infrastructure hardware and software means saving on stuff you’re not using and licenses you don’t need. Further, it rationalizes your fleet and properly manages your spares.
- Increased productivity and reduced downtime. With optimized IT infrastructure, the performance just gets better.
- Faster, more secure onboarding and offboarding. Streamline hiring with zero-touch or conditional access onboarding.
- IT that supports your business ambitions. MSPs often come with expert brains fitted as standard, which means you’ll have access to IT strategists and specialists you may not have in-house.
- Flexibility. You don’t pay for services you don’t need and can dip into different services when necessary.
Managed IT isn’t just about fixing problems, it’s about preventing them. With reduced risk, optimized infrastructure, improved productivity, and expert support at your fingertips, your business can soar to new heights — and all without breaking the IT budget!
A good all-round MSP will:
- Understand your business, how it works, and what you envision.
- Keep you legal and compliant (and out of jail, wink).
- Do all the IT gopher work, so you don’t have to.
- Help make your business run more effectively and efficiently.
- Help you transition smoothly between IT systems if you’re scaling up or your business changes, or help you with IT for special projects such as app development.
- Troubleshoot and fix problems quickly.
- Be an expert sounding board to consult on IT strategy.
- Give you the right support when needed.
How To Choose The MSP of Your Dreams
When shopping around, arm yourself with the right questions and observe the response. A good MSP will be happy (frighteningly so) to be open about anything you ask.
Find out if they have these green flags:
- They support multi-vendor and multi-device environments.
- They seem proactive rather than reactive. Can they give examples of how their knowledge of industry trends has helped other clients?
- They ask many questions about your business and operations.
- They offer simple and clear explanations rather than confusing you with jargon.
- The pricing structure is transparent and simple to understand, as is the service level agreement they offer.
- They have appropriate accreditations. What accreditations do they have?
- They’re available near-as-dammit 24/7, and the average response and fix time.
- They’re happy to let you talk to their existing clients.
Benefits of Managed IT: Take Your Pick
One of the biggest benefits of managed IT is that you get your time and headspace back to spend on funner, more strategic stuff. Knowing that your IT is secured, managed, and monitored will grant you the peace of mind you never knew you needed. If you’re thinking about taking the MSP plunge, let’s hold hands and dive right in together. Give us a call. We’re here to help.
Ignition is Silicon Valley’s best (and friendliest) IT security, compliance, and support team. Contact us now – chatting about IT support and cybersecurity is our favorite thing to do!